


On Broken Wings (They Collapse)

by MeteoraWrites



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bad Things Happen Bingo, Because plot, Brainy has a minor emotional breakdown, Buried Alive, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Lena is a bro, M/M, Major Character Injury, Missions Gone Wrong, Pre-Slash, Sort Of, Winn is high af on pain meds, main characters acting ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-05-20 18:14:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19382083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeteoraWrites/pseuds/MeteoraWrites
Summary: People think Brainy and Winn have a sort of frenemy style relationship. They bicker, and argue, and occasionally get in each other's faces when things get heated. What many people at the DEO don't seem to realize however is that they also both have feelings or one another.So when Winn gets hurt on a mission after being pushed by Brainy, some of the Super Friends don't exactly want him around while they wait for Winn to recover. Brainy takes their reactions a bit harder than one would expect. Fortunately, Winn still wants him around.





	On Broken Wings (They Collapse)

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is for a request I received over Tumblr, which I tweaked a tad to use for my Buried in Rubble square for Bad Things Happen Bingo. I hope you guys enjoy it <3

He didn’t mean for it to happen. His calculations had put the probability at only 7.3% that Winn could possibly be harmed when Brainy pushed him towards the unblocked exit behind them. He shouldn’t have been harmed. But he was, thanks to one last slaver with an energy weapon they had absolutely no business owning.

Winn had been their bait, much to everyone's protest. But the slavers wanted humans. Intelligent ones. And since Winn had got back he had shown he was more than capable of taking care of himself thanks to training with the Legion while he worked to save the future.

Brainy feels like his brain is short-circuiting as he hears the crack of concrete and thunderous roar of the far wall of the abandoned factory collapsing behind him. He turns just in time to see Winn duck down and try to protect himself as the large shards of the former wall rain down on him. He’s at the pile of rubble before it can even settle, Kara and the others joining him a moment later when they’ve disarmed the last slaver and gotten him cuffed with the rest.

“What were you thinking, Brainy! The wall was already damaged, why would you push him towards it!” Alex snaps as Brainy reaches for the same piece of rubble as her. He reels back, unsure of how to react to such a statement. Alex is mad, clearly, and not just because she’s worried for her friend.

“I was-” He’s cut off by Kara tossing a large piece of rubble to (hopefully it was to and not at?) him which he sets aside with the rest. Between him, J’onn, Alex, and Kara they have Winn uncovered quickly, and it’s clear he’s badly hurt from the way he’s lying curled up on the dusty floor.

He’s unconscious. Blood running down his face from somewhere in his hairline, a clearly broken arm tucked against his chest, and a multitude of scrapes and bruises all over. Brainy makes a move to go to him, but J’onn pulls him back as Kara steps forward. He can tell from the look of concentration on her face that she’s x-raying him. He tries to pull out of J’onns hold, but the Martian has a stern look on his face and refuses to budge as Kara scoops Winn up and flies off with him after telling Alex she’s taking him to the DEO. 

Alex is already running to her DEO issue SUV to follow before Brainy really knows what’s happening.

“We need to help with the prisoners,” J’onn says, tone oddly cold. Brainy assumes it’s because he’s picking up on the frustration and worry from all of them and he’s trying to block it out.

He nods numbly, and J’onn finally lets go of his arms before turning to go help the DEO agents that remain in getting the slavers out of the one remaining exit and into the waiting vehicles outside. Something inside him is screaming to go to Winn, make sure he’s going to be alright. But he knows he has a job to do, and that Kara wouldn’t have moved him if he wasn’t stable enough to handle it. She would take him to a hospital and not just the DEO if he was in any danger. He lets those facts comfort him. As much as they can anyway. His faith is logic is cracking like the wall that fell on the man he loves.

And isn’t that a sobering thought. He loves Winn. And he is aware that Winn has some kind of romantic feelings for him in turn, but neither has dared speak it yet. And now Winn is hurt and all Brainy can think of is getting his job done as quickly and efficiently as possible so he can fly back to the DEO and get an update on Winn’s condition.

Once the last prisoner is secured in the transport, he’s off like a shot, flying as fast as he can towards DEO headquarters. It takes a few minutes. They were fairly far north. So by the time he arrives Alex has just arrived herself a few minutes before and is with a few of the other medical staff members in a private room with Winn. 

A room which has Kara standing at the door, still in her costume with her arms crossed over her chest and a look on her face that Brainy hasn’t seen before. It’s a combination of worry and raw anger. He finds himself slowing his pace as he approaches. 

“Supergirl, is there any word yet on Winn’s condition?” He asks, stopping a few steps back and craning his neck to look past her and in through the small window on the door. He can’t see much. Winn is laid out on a table, several people shuffling about around him and obscuring him mostly from Brainy’s view.

“No, but he has a skull fracture and a broken arm and ankle. What were you thinking, Brainy? Didn’t you see the wall was about to come down?” Kara asks, frustration clear in her voice as well as the worry over her friend.

“I had assessed the probability of the wall collapsing at 7.3%. I was unaware that one of the combatants had an energy weapon, one not used on his home planet I might add, until he discharged it and hit the wall. Had I known, I would never have pushed him to run to the exit on that side of the factory,” he explains, his own frustration growing as he speaks. He knows he screwed up. He knows he’s responsible for Winn being hurt.

Kara remains silent for a long moment, clearly processing what he’s said before speaking. That or she’s listening in on what’s being said in the room behind her. “Alex and the others are going to be in there for a while, I think it’s best if you go for now.” Her tone isn’t it’s usual warm one, but he can see in her eyes that she doesn’t mean to hurt him by saying it.

Nodding, he pauses mid turn and looks back at her over his shoulder. “Please let me know when Winn is awake,” he says, waiting for a nod from Kare before heading down the hall and to the locker room.

It’s a bit overwhelming. Everyone acting so… harsh, towards him. Worrying for Winn. Being unable to do anything but go back to work.

He gets as far as the labs once he’s changed back into his DEO issue work clothes when he feels the urge to be anywhere but at his desk. His desk where is also Winn’s desk. That’s how he ends up in Lena’s lab, pacing the familiar space that holds no memories of Winn.

He doesn’t hear Lena walk in, too focused on running simulations and calculations deep in his mind. He knows he’s just making things worse for himself by doing so, but it’s all he can think to do given that he’s been banished by his friends from being where he most wants to be.

It takes Lena stepping in front of him and putting a hand on his shoulder to get Brainy to actually stop and look up from where he’d been staring at the floor. He has to blink a few times before he’s able to see her, tears he didn’t realize he was shedding clouding his vision.

“Brainy, what are you doing in here? Shouldn’t you be in the infirmary with the others?” It’s the softest anyone has spoken to Brainy since the incident, now well over an hour ago by his internal clock, and it makes some strong feeling twist in his chest and his breath hitch.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Lena says, hand rubbing his shoulder softly as she guides him to take a seat on the small sofa on the far side of the room. “Winn’s going to be fine. I just spoke to Alex, they’ve got him patched up and resting with enough pain medication to make sure he’s comfortable when he wakes up.”

It takes him a minute to compose himself, but once he does he looks Lena in the eyes and tries to sort out how he’s feeling before he speaks. “Supergirl told me to go. I think she and the others blame me for Winn being injured on today’s mission. Which is an accurate assessment, I did push him and tell him to run to the exit on the wall that collapsed. But I didn’t intend for him to be hurt.”

“It was an accident,” Lena supplies, giving a sympathetic look that has tears welling up in Brainy’s eyes again.

“Yes. I don’t understand, the others act as if I intentionally pushed Winn into danger,” Brainy says, tone giving away how frustrated and affected he is by this whole situation. “Surely they must realize I would never hurt Winn! I love him, how could I possibly hurt him!”

The stunned smile Lena gives him only lasts a moment before she pulls him into a hug. He freezes, unsure how to respond until Lena’s hands rub his back and pull him a little closer. He finds his own arms wrapping around her in turn as the feelings he’s battling bubble to the surface and he beings to really cry.

~~~~~

When Winn wakes up he has absolutely no idea what is going on. He just knows his eyelids are heavy and he hears beeping and people walking around whispering. It takes him a bit to realize he can indeed open his eyes, and he blinks in confusion at the brace currently covering his elevated right ankle and the cast covering most of his left arm.

“Why’s my arm n’ leg all wrapped up?” he asks, words as slurred. He does some weird movements with his mouth and tongue, feeling like he can make them work right if he does something to wake them up. It doesn’t work.

Alex is at his side a moment later, relief clear on her face to everyone but Winn, who is looking at his fingers on the hand currently in a cast. He’s wiggling them and staring like he isn’t sure they’re actually his. “They’re broken,” Alex says carefully, pulling out a penlight and making Winn look up as she checks his pupils. “Do you remember what happened?”

Squinting and batting at the light with his good hand, he tries to think. He remembers going to some tech convention and letting himself almost be kidnapped for a sting operation. And he remembers a shoot out… “Did a wall fall on me?” he asks after a long pause.

Alex lets out a sigh of relief at that, glad his memory is intact and he isn’t showing any signs of brain swelling or damage so far. “It did, but you’re going to be fine. You just rest now.”

Winn nods before looking around the room expectantly then pouting. “Where ‘s everyone else?” People are missing. He’s sure of it.

“Kara’s helping J’onn interrogate the slavers. She’ll be in to see you soon.” Alex assures, already turning away to fiddle with the I.V. hanging beside Winn’s bed.

“Where’s Brainy?” Winn asks a moment later, earning a grimace in response. He doesn’t miss the face Alex makes, and it makes him worry far more than someone this high on pain meds should be able to. “Is he a’right?”

Clearing her throat, Alex straightens up and composes herself before speaking. “Don’t worry about him, just get some rest,” she repeats for the last time before turning down the lights and leaving the room.

Winn wants to call out to her and ask where Brainy is again, but the lowered lights and the soft beep of the heart monitor start to drag him towards sleep. He knows he should rest, but he needs to know if Brainy is okay. Alex didn’t say where he was like with Kara and J’onn… So maybe he got hurt too?

Before he can dwell on it further the pain meds that Alex increased without his knowledge kick in and he’s out like a light.

Hours later he wakes up to find Kara and Alex both sitting in the room with him. There’s pizza on a tray table nearby and they’re talking softly until Winn lets out a groan that announces his return to consciousness. 

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Kara asks, already up and at his side to help him get into a slightly more comfortable position, which is a real bitch given the arm cast and ankle brace.

“Peachy, think I’ll go for a walk later…” Winn says with a giggle that has Kara and Alex relaxing further. “Where’s Brainy?” he adds once he’s propped up more comfortably and has a slice of pizza set before him.

He’s too busy digging into what feels like the first food he’s had in ages, and not just roughly 5 hours, to notice the looks Kara and Alex trade. Lena came down with Brainy not long after Winn had woken up and gone back to sleep, and they were turned away, a bit harshly on Alex’s part. Brainy came back 2 hours after that, but this time it was Kara that shooed him away with a glare and snapped promise that he would get an update later.

When he doesn’t get an answer, Winn sets his pizza down and looks between Kara and Alex before looking past them to the open door to try and see if the Coluan is out in one of the beds in the main area of the infirmary. “Is he hurt? Did the wall hit him too?”

Kara shakes her head and steps into Winn’s field of vision, a smile on her face that he would know was fake if he wasn’t currently in the land of bunnies and pink elephants. “No, he’s fine. Don’t you worry about him. You just eat your pizza and get some more rest. You were hurt pretty bad.”

Winn scoffs and shifts away when Kara reaches out to put a hand on his shoulder. “I know that. ‘M not an invalid. Why won’t you tell me where he is? What happened?”

“Winn, we just think you should rest and not have too many visitors,” Alex says from her seat. “We don’t want to stress you out.”

“Not knowing if he’s okay is stressing me out,” Winn argues, a pout forming on his face yet again. “I want to see him.” 

His tone makes it clear he isn’t going to back down, and Alex can’t up his meds to get him to fall asleep and drop it like she did earlier. Kara and Alex trade looks before both sighing. A beat later Kara walks out of the room, using the phone on the other side of the wall to call Lena’s lab and see if she and Brainy are still there.

A moment later she’s back and gestures for Alex to come with her. “He’ll be here in a minute,” she tells Winn before they both disappear out of the room.

Confused, Winn lets himself settle back into the mound of pillows that Kara made behind him. His head is throbbing in a way reminiscent of a migraine, though duller. He isn’t sure if that means the pain meds he’s on are wearing off or his frustration is just making his condition worse. Either way, he ends up closing his eyes and letting his head tip back against the pillow as he waits.

The sound of soft footsteps approaching his room causes Winn to open his eyes and lift his head in time to see Brainy step into his doorway. He looks… anxious. Face a bit ruddy like he’s been crying and eyes a little red. His image inducer is turned off for a change, and it’s clear he’s uncomfortable. Not that Winn can figure out why. He’s just happy to see him.

“There you are!” He says, relief bleeding into his voice as he reaches out his good hand and wiggles his fingers in a  _ get in here _ motion. When the Coluan hesitates he heaves a sigh and rolls his eyes before patting the bit of open space on the side of the bed. “Get in here, Brainy.”

Hesitantly, Brainy comes forward, stopping a good foot away from Winn’s bed.

“Are you alright?” Winn asks, looking him over. “They didn’t want me to see you. I don’t get why. Did you get hurt when the wall fell too?”

Something in Brainy’s expression shifts so quickly that Winn doesn’t have time to process it before the other man shakes his head and crosses his arms over his chest. “I was still handcuffing one of the slavers when it fell. You were the only one injured.”

Winn sags back into the pile of pillows at that, relieved that Brainy is alright. “Come here,” he says, patting the edge of the bed again. “Come on, dude. I don’t bite.”

That gets a snort from the Coluan, who finally bridges the gap between them and comes to sit on the edge of Winn’s bed. “I am sorry, Winn. I did not mean for you to get hurt. I never would have told you to go that way had I kno-” He’s cut off when Winn reaches out and grabs his hand from where it rests on his lap.

Winn gives it a squeeze, noticing how warm the other man's skin is as he does so. “Stop apologizing. I don’t blame you. Woulda ran that way anyway. It was the closest exit,” he shrugs off, letting his fingers slip between Brainy’s as the Coluans hand turns in his grasp. It’s nice. Like they fit together perfectly.

When he looks up Brainy is staring him straight in the eyes, obviously unsure of how to respond.

Winn can’t help the dopey grin that spread across his face. “If I’d know holding your hand was all it took to render you speechless I would have done it ages ago,” he says with a nod before using their joined hands to pull Brainy a bit closer.

“Clearly you are being affected by the medication Alex has given you, I should-” he starts to stand, but Winn keeps hold of his hand and refuses to let him get away.

“Bullshit. I know I’m loopy but that doesn’t change how I feel. Now sit down and talk to me,” Winn manages to sound like his old self for the entire statement, but its effect is lessened by the slightly exaggerated pout that follows. It helps that Winn’s thumb is also stroking the back of Brainy’s hand in a way that is very calming.

Signing, Brainy sits back down, this time much closer, so the hand Winn is holding is in his lap and he can put his other hand on Winn’s arm. It’s a light touch, like he’s afraid he’ll be rebuked any moment for doing so. “What is it you wish to talk about?”

“Us,” Winn says bluntly.

“Us?” Brainy reiterates, head tilting a little as he squints at Winn.

“Yes, us. There should be an us.” It’s a statement of fact. Not a suggestion. And he can’t help but grin at the way the Coluans cheeks darken a bit at it. “Come on, I know you have a thing for me. And you’d have to be blind not to notice I’m into you. Spending two years in the future has had a good impact on me. I see your personality as charming now.” The sage nod that follows makes Brainy bark a laugh.

“We should discuss this when you’re on a lower dose of pain medication,” he points out, but doesn’t try to argue against the idea of them being an  _ us _ . Instead, he looks around the room before turning back to Winn. “I will stay, but only if you agree to eat and then get some more sleep. I don’t imagine it’s healthy for you to be receiving so much medication on an empty stomach.”

Signing, Winn let’s go of Brainy’s hand so he can pick up his now room temp slice of pizza to take a bite. “Fine, but if you aren’t here when I wake up I’m getting out of this bed and coming to find you.”

That gets another laugh out of the other man, who nods and agrees before pulling the rolling tray table with the rest of the pizza over and grabbing a slide of his own.

Outside of the room, Kara and Alex stand a ways back with Lena, who’s smiling like the cat that got the canary. “I told you they didn’t hate each other,” she says, doing her best to keep her voice it’s usual tone.

Alex is just shaking her head while Kara looks absolutely stunned. Lena drags them away a moment later, promising them drinks on her so long as they both apologize to Brainy in the morning. Neither of them protests.

**Author's Note:**

> I want to note I am listening to Rise Against as I post this, hence the name is song lyrics from "To Them These Streets Belong"
> 
> For anyone that's interested, feel free to join the [Dox Shippers Unite](https://discord.gg/usg2Xh) discord server <3


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